Michael
Flynn, the former national security adviser, walks to his plea
hearing on December 1. He pleaded guilty to making false
statements to federal investigators.Jonathan
Ernst/Reuters

Michael Flynn has acknowledged that a senior Trump
transition official directed him to contact Russian officials
last December.

Flynn, then the incoming national security adviser,
called transition officials at Mar-a-Lago on December 29
shortly before speaking with Russia's ambassador to the US at
the time, Sergey Kislyak, federal prosecutors say.

Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to making false
statements about the nature of his conversations with
Kislyak.

Federal prosecutors said in court on Friday that the former
national security adviser Michael Flynn called senior transition
officials at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on
December 29.

The purpose of the call, the prosecutors say, was to discuss what
Flynn would say to Russia's ambassador to the US at the time,
Sergey Kislyak, about sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama
on Russia that day.

As part of a plea deal, Flynn has told the federal government that a
senior member of the transition team directed him to contact
Russian officials last December.

The government did not disclose the identity of the transition
official.

Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was a senior member of the
transition team and had met with both Flynn and Kislyak earlier
that month at Trump Tower. Kushner is a focus of the special counsel
Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in
the 2016 US election and whether any Trump associates played a
part.

Trump was also at Mar-a-Lago on December 29, raising questions
about whether he was involved in telling the Russians to hold off
on retaliating, on the promise that the sanctions would be
reviewed once Trump took office.

The Washington Post
reported in February that Flynn had spoken to Kislyak about
sanctions during the transition. Asked about that report at the
time, Trump said: "I don't know about it. I haven't seen it ...
I'll look at that."

Flynn was asked to resign shortly after, though Trump continued
to defend him as a "wonderful man" who had been treated "very
unfairly."

Flynn asked Kislyak to 'refrain from escalating the situation'

A charging document filed by Mueller's office on
Friday says Flynn asked Kislyak "to refrain from escalating
the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had
imposed against Russia that same day."

Kislyak later told Flynn that "Russia had chosen to moderate its
response to those sanctions as a result of his request," the
document says.

Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to making false statements to the
FBI about those conversations. He had told federal investigators
that he did not speak to Kislyak about the sanctions and did not
recall Kislyak telling him that Russia would moderate its
response.

On December 30, one day after Flynn spoke to the transition
officials and Kislyak, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced
that Russia would not retaliate.

"We will not create problems for US diplomats," Putin said in a
statement. "We will not expel anybody."

The revelation sheds new light on the White House's reaction — or
lack thereof — in January when the acting attorney general at the
time, Sally Yates, told the White House counsel, Don McGahn, that
Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his calls with
Kislyak.

Yates testified earlier this year that she warned McGahn so that
he "could take action" amid concerns Flynn could be subject to
blackmail by Russians.

"The first thing we did was to explain to Mr. McGahn that the
underlying conduct that General Flynn had engaged in was
problematic in and of itself," Yates said in her testimony. "We
told him we felt like the vice president and others were entitled
to know that the information that they were conveying to the
American people wasn't true."

She added: "We told him ... we were concerned that the American
people had been misled about the underlying conduct and what
General Flynn had done, and, additionally, that we weren't the
only ones that knew all of this."

Flynn is cooperating with Mueller

Flynn said in a statement on Friday that he was "working to set
things right."

"My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special
Counsel's office reflect a decision I made in the best interests
of my family and of our country," he said. "I accept full
responsibility for my actions."

Ty Cobb, the White House special counsel who has been
representing Trump in the Russia investigation, characterized
Flynn as "a former Obama administration official" in a statement
on Friday.

He added: "The false statements involved mirror the false
statements to the White House officials which resulted in his
resignation in February of this year. Nothing about the guilty
plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn."